Judicium
"If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own." -Henry Ford
The Chitauri thrive on chaos.
Well, not entirely. Chaos is not sustenance. Chaos does not keep an entire race alive. Technically speaking, the Chitauri do not thrive on chaos. Not in the literal sense.
But, oh, how they love it. Anarchy, disrule, rebellion. That is really what the Chitauri are all about-except, for some curious reason, in the ruling of their own race. The Other, as he prefers to be called, has been their ruler for a long time indeed. Although there is the other one, the one who appeared one day and somehow rose to the top of their ruling system, the one not of their race, the one who is rumored to be called Thanos.
It is unclear to the Chitauri who truly rules them, but in the grand scheme of things, it matters not. Thanos has promised them chaos. So they wait. And wait.
Takr (technically names do not matter, as he is one of the Chitauri, the master race, and that is all he has been and all he ever will be) is one of the ones who has been waiting. He is young, and simply a footsoldier (although with time he hopes to become more than that, because war is really all that matters). So he and the rest of the Chitauri born in the same cycle that he was, they train for the war that they have been promised. But their planet is very boring, really, and Thanos' promised war has not come.
Until one day. A day that promises monotony and dullness, just like all the others-at least, until Takr sees the returning border patrol (he would have given anything to join it, but his rank is not high enough yet). They are returning back at the same time they always do-and they have brought something with them, it seems.
(What exactly is that?) asks one of the generals who has been waiting for the patrol to return, stepping aside as they prepare to file into the master compound and report to the Other.
(We don't know. Some sort of alien life form,) responds the nearest patrol member. The small crowd of curious onlookers shifts slightly and Takr finally sees what all the hype is about.
It's definitely not of this realm, that's for sure. The alien-creature-thing, whatever it is, seems to lack any armor whatsoever, only wearing a thin robe. Hardly built for war. It is extremely pale-in fact, Takr doesn't know if he's ever seen anything so pale in his life. Except the top of its head, which is jet-black.
The creature also seems to be unconscious, or nearly so, and is being dragged along by two of the lower-ranking Chitauri, who seem less than thrilled about their job.
(Did you put it through the Trials?) questions the same general. The patrol member simply nods in assent.
Takr knows about the Trials-every Chitauri does. If an alien life form is found on their planet, the Chitauri patrol that finds it will test its limits both mentally and physically, to see how much pain it can withstand. A common practice. In Takr's rather short life, there had been a few life-forms that found their way to the planet, but none of them were able to survive the Trials-they had all obviously been weaklings. None of them, at least, until this creature showed up. And even then, this creature had looked very fragile, very delicate. Very weak, and weak is an abomination to the Chitauri.
Takr wonders briefly if Thanos was ever put through the Trials. But Thanos has been around for Takr's whole life, so there's no way Takr can answer that question. He supposes that he could ask one of the older, more experienced soldiers, but they would probably scoff at him. No, Takr has more important things on his mind at the moment anyway.
The last of the border patrol, along with the mysterious life-form, troops into the Other's compound. Once they are gone, the Chitauri left in the clearing break into excited chatter.
(Did you see that?)
(What was that thing anyway?)
(I heard that it doesn't know our language.)
(So did I!)
(That's ridiculous.)
(No, I swear it's true. I swear it.)
(The Other will be able to talk to it, the Other knows every language there is.)
(Well, I think Thanos is going to kill it.)
(I think it's going to join him.)
(Pathetic weak thing like that? Please.)
(It doesn't even have any armor! How is it still alive?)
(How did it even survive the Trials?)
(Good question.)
Eventually, the Chitauri return to their mother-ships, including Takr, because rest is vital if he is going to be a high-ranking warrior.
The next day, Takr hopes to see the strange creature, but apparently the creature is still residing inside the master compound. He tries asking some of the Chitauri who went on the border patrol what happened to it, but all they say is that they handed the alien over to the Other, and the Other had immediately dismissed them, and they had obeyed him-leaving the creature thing with him, as well.
(Is it true that the Other can speak any language there is?) he asks them, still overwhelmingly curious.
(I don't doubt it. The Other is a genius,) replies one of the patrol members.
(Not as smart as Thanos,) another patrol member retorts, and the two of them soon get into a heated discussion over which is the more powerful.
(You'd better leave, young one. Wouldn't want to miss training,) a voice says behind him. Takr nods in assent-because it's true, missing training is the last thing he wants to do right now, and the strange creature is pushed from his mind.
Takr doesn't remember the thing until an eighth of a cycle later, when the hatch to the master compound opens and he hears a voice, the Other's voice, hissing that one of the footsoldiers needs to get in here right now. Takr is closest to the open hatch. The other Chitauri simply motion for him to go in, and he does, slightly apprehensive about what he will find. He has never been inside the master compound before.
He travels down a long passageway, and eventually comes to a large central room, more spacious than any room he's ever seen before. Inside, the Other and Thanos are in the middle of a very intense discussion, but it's in some other language. Takr is impressed. So the stories about them were true after all. After a moment, both of them notice him, stop their conversation, and simply stare at him. Takr feels incredibly awkward-he is not used to getting this much attention from his superiors. After a moment, he regains his bearings and drops into a low bow, reserved only for the most superior of officers.
(Good,) purrs the Other. (Very good.)
(You called for a footsoldier?) asks Takr nervously.
Thanos grins his strange wide grin. The Other nods at Takr.
(Yes, yes, precisely. I need you to take this)-he held out a loaf made of some strange foodstuff, as well as a key-(and deliver it to the Jotun at the very end of the side hallway.)
(The Jotun?)
The Other sighs impatiently. (The creature you saw arrive recently.)
Oh! The life-form that had been brought in by the border patrol. All of a sudden, Takr is excited at the prospect of getting to see it again. He takes the loaf and starts to head down the hallway-
(Wait.)
Takr freezes at the Other's command and turns around. The Other has what is almost a malicious sort of glint in his eye, and it begins to speak again.
(Before you give it the food, make sure it begs you. Make sure it knows that it is worthless, that it should be grateful to us for even keeping it alive, the useless thing. If it doesn't beg you, don't give it anything.) With that, the Other gestures Takr away and resumes talking to Thanos in the strange language.
Takr walks down the hallway, slightly confused. What the Other said is all well and good-after all, the Chitauri are the strongest race in the entire universe-but the Other seems to have forgotten that Takr does not know the creature's language, does not know what begging looks like (after all, the Chitauri are taught that to beg anyone for anything is a sign of weakness, and weakness is absolutely intolerable), and will not be able to communicate with it at all.
He shrugs, and continues down the narrow hallway towards the guards at the end.
Paranoia has become life now. Constant terror, fear, never able to relax. Not fully. Because whenever he tries to take his mind off it, off them, they come back. They always do.
That doesn't stop Loki from trying to take his mind off of them. The Chitauri. When he fell, he landed here and they ripped him apart, tore, twisted him more than he would have ever thought possible and they hurt him made him beg for death no no no no-
Stop. Loki breathes in, sits up on the floor of his cell, and tries to recall some sort of happy memory, something from Asgard. But no, no, no, he's not Asgardian. It was all a lie. Everything. Frigga said she loved him, but how could she? He is a monster, he knows that now. A beast from a frozen wasteland who never should have survived to this age. That was why he had tried to end it, to die, by letting go of the Bifrost. But that hadn't worked either.
No one cares about him, really. If Odin and Frigga had really cared, they would have rescued him from this terrible place a long time ago. Clearly they don't care. No one cares. In the end, there's only one person that Loki can fully trust, and that's himself.
Then Loki remembers back to when he had grabbed the Casket of Ancient Winters, first seen his true form. No, he cannot even trust himself now. Everyone hates him. He hates everyone. Someday, if he rules Midgard (no no no not if, he means when, when he rules Midgard,because he's not going to fail he's not they won't let him), when he rules Midgard, he will create his own army. He will destroy Jotunheim and Asgard and whatever this godforsaken planet is called. Especially this one. Loki hates this one the most, he thinks.
He will return with his army and blast this planet into tiny pieces (but not before making the Chitauri, especially Thanos and the Other, beg for death, plead just like he did) and it will be glorious and no one will be able to stop him and-
Click.
The door to his tiny cell begins to open and Loki freezes because it's them the Other or Thanos or both and they're going to hurt him no no he's not safe not ever please no he already knows he's worthless they keep telling him that but he knows, what more do they want-
It's not one of them. But it's a Chitauri nonetheless, and Loki immediately tenses because it looks exactly like the ones that first found him, when he had just fallen from the Bifrost about a week or so ago (although it is nearly impossible to keep track of time here). They had broken him, tortured him nearly to the breaking point. He wishes he had broken, that he had been killed then. What those Chitauri had done was nothing compared to what Thanos and the Other had done to him, how they had convinced him to get the Tesseract for them-at least he will rule Midgard. That is the only good thing about this so-called arrangement.
The Chitauri shuts the door. It seems to be holding a loaf of something-bread, perhaps? Finally. Loki is starving, has been for what seems like ages. But he realizes-it is not going to give up the bread that easily. He will undoubtedly have to do something in return, to beg, to swear his undying allegiance, to go through more pain no please no-
The Chitauri steps closer to Loki. For a few seconds, he and the strange creature simply stare at each other. Loki breathes in a rattling breath, tries to control the shaking, tries to pretend that he's not scared, not at all.
It makes some strange hissing noise and no this is exactly what happened when they first found him, they hissed and he couldn't understand them and later when he screamed, begged, for them to stop, they either didn't understand or simply didn't care. They are monsters, all of them.
It hisses again, bends down, and jabs him in the side. Loki violently flinches, wishing for nothing more than for it to leave, he doesn't care if he starves to death, starving would be preferable to this-
It jabs him again, more forcefully this time.
"Get away from me!" The words burst from Loki's mouth before he can stop them, and he immediately realizes his mistake-never argue with your superiors, Thanos has taught him-and curls up inside himself, waiting for whatever punishment he will be dealt.
He waits.
And waits.
Finally, he gets up enough courage to lift his head up and gaze at the Chitauri in trepidation. It seems to be in some sort of daze, and Loki wonders if he could somehow kill it and escape-but no, the creature is bigger than him, not to mention in much better physical condition. Even if he did somehow manage to overpower it, what then? The cell blocks his magic, and without the help of it, there is no way he can escape the guards blocking the front of it. So Loki waits.
The Chitauri sets the bread down and-and leaves. Just like that.
The door locks behind it. Loki eyes the bread apprehensively. It is probably poisoned, but at this point he's so hungry that he wouldn't care if it was highly toxic. He grabs it and begins to eat, slowly, cautiously. It doesn't seem to be poisoned, but the poison could simply be slow-acting.
Poison or not, he still hates the Chitauri. All of them.
Click.
Takr opens the room's door, walks in, and closes it cautiously, not wanting to provoke the creature. At first he doesn't see it, but then he notices it, fragile, resting against a wall, blue-green eyes gazing up at him.
It seems to be even smaller and weaker than when he last saw it. Or maybe Takr is just imagining things.
He takes a few steps into the room. It seems almost to shrink away from him, and it's shaking. Is it...can it possibly be scared of him? Scared of a simple footsoldier? Takr nearly laughs aloud at that one. How ridiculous.
(The Other says that if you want this bread, you'll have to beg for it.) says Takr nervously, hoping that the strange life-form will understand him. It does not seem to, and keeps staring at him. Takr finds its gaze rather daunting.
(Are you even understanding me?) asks Takr, frustrated. When it does not respond again, Takr lightly pokes it in the side, and it violently jerks away from him. Takr stares at the creature in surprise-he barely even touched it. It must be even weaker than he had thought. Well, this seems like the only way that he can get through to it, really.
He taps it again, harder this time, and it makes some high-pitched sounds that he doesn't understand before curling up into a ball.
By now, Takr is very confused. If that was a defense mechanism, it doesn't seem to be very effective, as the creature lacks armor except for a robe. Was that begging, then? How is he supposed to know?
The creature is looking at him again, almost in expectation, so it seems. It certainly looks hungry. Maybe if he gives it the bread, it will look less weak. Yes, he will do that, and just assume that its strange actions were indeed a form of begging.
His mind made up, he sets the bread down gently on the floor, exits, locks the door, and leaves the strange life-form without another word. As he walks down the hallway, he remembers something about it...the thing almost unnerved him, if Takr is perfectly honest with himself. The creature's eyes-that was it. It kept staring at him. In its gaze, there was something, something that Takr couldn't place. Takr puzzles over it for a second, but then shrugs and exits the master compound.
Takr is young and inexperienced, and therefore rather terrible at reading emotions. He does not know that Loki is terrified of him, that Loki has been tortured by those who look just like him. He also does not know that Loki hates him, hates all of the Chitauri. But Takr is still young. Perhaps it is better that he doesn't know. After all, Thanos and the Other wouldn't want the young ones to know too much. In fact, they don't want any of the Chitauri to know too much. It would interfere with their warrior training. Or so they say.
That night, from the highest rock in the clearing, Thanos announces to all the Chitauri that they will have their war, that the alien creature they found will lead them there. The clearing explodes into uproar and excitement. Takr cheers along with the rest of them, but privately he wonders how the weak, fragile thing he saw earlier that day will ever be strong enough to lead the Chitauri army.
Deep inside the master compound, Loki thinks just the opposite. He will lead this army. He will take over Midgard.
Loki does not let himself think about the alternative. With luck, he won't need to think about it at all.
After all, the Chitauri thrive on chaos.